TWO ARRESTED AT HOSPITAL SUSPECTED OF CRIME SPREE

Two suspects in a violent crime spree throughout Escondido early Wednesday were arrested after they went to a hospital with injuries that police said were sustained during a home-invasion confrontation with two of their victims, one in the Navy and one a former sailor.

Brandon Martinez, 20, and Antonio Amador, 18, both of Escondido, were taken into custody at Palomar Medical Center, police Lt. Neal Griffin said.

Griffin said the crime spree started about 12:30 a.m. when the suspects burglarized a house on Kenora Place, near Boyle Avenue.

A woman woke to find a burglar with his face covered walking toward a bedroom carrying a baseball bat. Another man in the living room who was disconnecting a television set carried a bat or metal pipe.

The woman woke her husband and the burglars fled with a laptop computer. The suspects then robbed a male of his bike blocks away, police said.

Numerous officers responded and searched for the suspects.

About 1:45 a.m., a resident on Sycamore Crest Place, near Hidden Trails Road, saw two men trying to open doors in the neighborhood. When they got to her door, her brother yelled at them to leave. The suspects got baseball bats out of their vehicle and smashed the windshield out of the woman’s car, Griffin said. They fled in a dark-colored two-door Honda.

Less than an hour later, a resident on East Lincoln Avenue, near Paula Street, woke and found two men armed with baseball bats in her home. She yelled to her roommates, one an enlisted sailor and the other recently discharged.

A violent fight ensued, Griffin said. The woman and one of the men were struck twice by the bats and had minor injuries, he said.

The men “grabbed what they could to defend themselves and used it effectively,” Griffin said. He declined to say what they used, but said no firearms were involved.

The assailants fled and were arrested after they sought treatment at the hospital for contusions, lacerations and abrasions. Their Honda, with blood inside, was found in the parking lot.

Martinez and Amador were booked into Vista jail on counts of burglary, home-invasion robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy. Amador is also accused of committing a felony while on bail.

They are scheduled to appear in Vista Superior Court on Friday.

Susan Shroder • U-T

Oceanside driver, 20, killed in crash that ejected her

north county

A 20-year-old Oceanside woman was killed Tuesday night in a car crash in Pauma Valley, the California Highway Patrol said.

The victim was driving east on state Route 76 east of Poomacha Road about 9:20 p.m. when for unknown reasons she failed to negotiate a curve and hit a rock wall, a medical examiner said.

She was ejected from the Honda Civic and died at the scene. Her name has not been released.

Debbi Baker • U-T

Paramedics unable to revive unconscious Chula Vista man

Chula Vista

A man was accidentally killed Wednesday while working on a vehicle at his Chula Vista home, police said.